Kidney: Dip in form hasn’t waned interest

His team is undoubtedly struggling and ticket sales for the November series are somewhat sluggish, but Declan Kidney was quick to find fault yesterday with the assumption there is a disconnect right now between his Ireland outfit and the general public.

“If the support wasn’t there for us then the disappointment in our results wouldn’t be as palpable,” said the national coach. “If it didn’t matter to people they wouldn’t worry about the results, but people are as concerned about the results as ever.

“When we won matches last year there was a lot of excitement and when we didn’t win there was a lot of upset about it so it is our job to get the team to play to the best of its ability because it can matter even more to people in these times because now this is who we are.”

It’s a fair argument given that the team had just overcome Australia in the pool stages of the World Cup this time 12 months ago and were being followed up and down the length of New Zealand’s two islands by an estimated 7-8,000 Irish supporters.

And yet, what has followed since has been coloured more by disappointment than delight: the losses to Wales in the Westpac and Aviva stadiums, the failure to put France away in Paris, the horror show in Twickenham and the three-Test tour in New Zealand.

The statistics aren’t kind to Ireland in the years since Stephen Jones’ last-gasp penalty dropped under the Irish crossbar in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. Since then, Ireland have won just 25% of their games against the various top-eight ranked sides.

“Changes had to be invoked,” said Kidney. “That always takes a little bit of time. If you look at the third Test in New Zealand compared to ’09, I think there were 13 changes. When New Zealand go 14-0, up experience will tell you not to chase them.

“We probably weren’t as experienced as we needed to be. We learned a huge amount from that. I’ve been in this long enough to know out of that great things can come. It all depends on how you approach it.”

Like Jonathan Sexton the day before, Kidney referenced Clive Woodward’s England 2003 side which had to endure a number of humbling experiences against southern hemisphere opposition before emerging into one of the best sides ever.

How fitting then that Ireland’s next two full Test outings will be against Rugby Championship opposition with South Africa and Argentina promising to offer very similar, rugged rules of engagement over the space of 14 days in Dublin.

“Physically, it’s going to be a massive battle for the whole team,” said forwards coach Gert Smal, “especially South Africa who have got big forwards and big backs and they want to get over that advantage line and get quick ball as much as they can.”

Kidney must also allow for the game between an Ireland XV and Fiji at Thomond Park on Saturday, November 17 but whether that will be a de facto ‘A’ side or a combination of front-liners and fringe players remains to be seen.

The provinces are about to face into two more RaboDirect PRO12 weekends, rounds one and two of the Heineken Cup and then another pair of PRO12 fixtures before the opening international of the season against the Springboks on November 10.